Circles Around
by fluffy kitty of darkness
Summary: "Checkmate." / It was childish of him to feel so smug about the win and Ron tried to ignore how awful it also made him feel.


The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season 6 / Round 12

Position: Captain

Team: Kenmare Kestrels

Prompt - Write about Ron's relationship with Harry

This takes place during third year (Christmas break) and it circles around Ron's jealously when he was younger, his maturity in knowing it wasn't right to have, but still having it circle around to that doubt in himself at the end. This child!Ron so this will be different that the jealous!Ron we see in fourth year. Ron is one of my favorite characters and there are so many sides of Ron that I could've written about, but already I feel like I barely know his character at all. Please excuse the weird!Ron you might see ahead. :'(

* * *

Christmas break during Hogwarts was a rather forgetful time of the year, other than the excitement of gifts in the morning and the potiental possibility of the twins waking them up with a loud prank or a smuggled treat that was a bit more _trick_ than treat. It was forgetful because of the lack of Hermione, who went home to her parents every year on the holidays and the sound of snow that layered the whole castle in a protective guard from sounds and dangers.

...

Ron Weasley scowled at his pawn that was sprawled out across the board. It had been a wrong move on his part, but sometimes it felt easier to blame the piece.

"Sorry." Harry apologized from across from him and Ron waved him off.

"It means you're improving, mate!"

A lot faster than he had when Ronald had been taught chess by Percy several years ago. It was to be expected, he consoled himself. Taking chess seriously only happened after he had dedicated himself to beating every one of his brothers at the game.

He instructed his bishop to capture the oppounets knight and it did, and his excitement was lessened by the dissappointing slump in Harry's shoulder.

Harry spoke up again. "Hey... weren't you upset at me earlier? Why are we playing chess?"

Ron paused and thought about it. That's right. On the way from breakfast, they had encountered Malfoy and his pack of loyal Slytherins just waiting to pounce on the red-headed boy and his friend. Despite the multiple insults concerning Ron and his family, Harry had dragged him away forcefully. While it had been the better option that trading jinxs, it had put Ron in a foul mood since then. Until he spotted his chess set by his bunk and Harry was a slow learner, but a good player.

"Chess calms me down. Percy found me a set when I was younger, he said he never got the hang of it."

"Percy?" Harry looked strangely baffled.

"Mhm. _That_ Percy. Anyway, I started playing whenever I felt bad, upset, or... " Ron hesitanted over the last word, he always hated saying it, "... jealous."

Harry didn't seem to focus on it too much. The boy was already eyeing his next move on the board. "That makes sense."

"What do you do... when you get upset?" Ron tried to see if he could figure his friend's counter-plan on the board. After a few moments of silence, Ron looked up to see Harry looking puzzled.

"I guess I just take deep breaths. Or I just focus on one spot and wait for it to fade away."

The room from the previous school year came floating up in Ron's memory and the sight of his best friend being strangely underfed. Well, Harry had always been a skinny bloke, but that night had been especially bad, and the bars on the window. The room had been strangely absent compared to all the Cannon's posters and trinkets that decorated the walls and floor in his room — it was strangely bare of anything comforting. Harry probably didn't have a lot to distract himself with.

This made Ron feel slightly ashamed of himself. That lingering jealous that always seemed to follow whenever Harry got something he didn't. Or, what he might have versus the hand-me-downs of him.

Ron tugged the sleeves of his Weasley sweater down to cover his hands and instructed his knight to take his friend's bishop. "Sorry, mate."

Harry laughed. "What do you mean? How else will I learn this game? I'm winning this." He pushed the glasses up his nose and leaned forward, looking excitedly determined.

The game continued on for a few moves until Harry spoke up, bit somberly. "I'm sorry for holding you back earlier. I mean, if Malfoy had said that about my family. Which...your mum..." Harry had descended into an a slight mess, trying to find the right words, '... she's like my second mum?"

Ron stared at the wide H that was knitted on his friend's sweater. "I suppose so..." He gave a wide grin. "That makes you my brother."

Harry started to smile. "Really?"

Ron studied the board for his next move. "Yeah, mate. You don't have to be related to be part of a family." And what's another brother to the mix, really, he added silently. Harry was his best mate.

"And don't worry about the whole Malfoy thing." Ron pointed out. "It was for the best. Snape, the slimy git, was probably waiting around the corner to take points. Plus, Hermione isn't around to keep us in control so it could've descended into chaos."

"Agreed."

"Don't you dare tell her I said that."

"I won't." Harry instructed one of his pieces to take a pawn. "Oh! Speaking of Hermione..." He fished out an envelope from his pockets. "I got a letter from her this morning."

Ron frowned. "I didn't get a letter from her."

Harry rolled his eyes. "That's because you never reply. She complains about it a lot, Hermione probably stopped sending you letters because of it."

That's true. Ron wasn't good at writing letters and it was _boring_ to keep rewriting them, and if he didn't rewrite them, Hermione would get onto him about penmanship, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy getting letters from his friends. He always sent letters to Harry during the summer, and a few to Hermione after he went through the boatload of parchment he would get in a week from her. Did not replying to her enough make her not want to send them anymore. Harry barely wrote letters back either, so why did he get a letter?

A familar feeling of guilt and jealous was settling in his stomach and he pushed it away. There was no way he was going to start getting pushed around by something as petty as a letter. Break was over in a few weeks anyway. He would ask her then.

"Do you want to know what she said?"

"Not really." Ron shrugged and desperately search the chess board.

It was childish to feel like he needed to do something to regain his importance in a friendship. Ron disliked childish kids immensely and he thought they were awful.

Within two minutes, he remembered what his original chess plan had been about and he quickly whispered to his queen. There was a gasp from Harry and Ron watched his queen knock over his best mate's king with a flourish.

"Checkmate."

It was childish of him to feel so smug about the win and Ron tried to ignore how _awful_ it also made him feel.


End file.
